


Stale Underground

by KeiAniki



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Blood, Eating, Hallucinations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 15:10:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3855226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeiAniki/pseuds/KeiAniki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hide finds Kaneki in the sewer. Hallucinations- it gets weird.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stale Underground

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't reread this after writing it I'm very sorry

Kaneki’s body hurt. His wounds seemed to be beyond healing at this point, so he lay helplessly still in the tunnel he’d escaped to, slowly bleeding out; the sewer water would probably have been cold on his back if he could feel it. But staring up into the blackness, Kaneki wasn’t really there. His mind was somewhere else. 

Instead of the stale underground air he felt a humid breeze and the warm sun on his shoulders. Kaneki was walking home from school- his best friend chatting away next to him. He and Hide were talking about some trivial thing, like they often would, just to pass the time. His friend’s smile mirrored the afternoon sunlight beaming down on the two of them as they walked. That smile always put him at ease. It was less like a memory and more like Kaneki’s battle-tired brain had finally broken, but it was nice. He felt peaceful for the first time in… he didn’t even know how long. Just as he was sinking into the warmth of his dream something began pulling him back to the unforgiving reality of his situation.

Sloshing footsteps echoed throughout the tunnel. They were so loud. Kaneki’s warm autumn afternoon grew dark and cloudy as the footsteps moved closer. He felt it begin to rain- heavy, dirty drops splattering his face. 

“Hide! We should get out of the-“ he turned to tell his friend they should find shelter but as he looked around, Hide had vanished. 

“…Hide?” He looked around frantically “Hide!” Kaneki began to panic as the rain grew heavier, pouring down in unbelievable force. He was soaking wet in dirty rainwater and struggling to breathe.

“Kaneki…?” was that Hide? He heard his friend’s voice from far away, like a narration to a dream.

“Kaneki!” Hide found his friend battered and bleeding, laying face down in the sewer. “Hey, Kaneki! Wake up!”

Kaneki felt someone violently shaking him, nearly pulling him from his nightmare. Where was he? Why did he- oh god. Something didn’t feel right. Something was very wrong. He felt like his guts were spilling out into the rainwater pooling around him. He felt torn open. Kaneki looked down and saw a ragged hole and blood seeping into his school uniform, dying the already soaked fabric a horrific red. He didn’t know what was going on. Why was he shaking? No, someone was shaking him… but how could anyone else be there? Why was their voice familiar? Where had Hide disappeared?

“Kaneki! Kaneki, hey!” the voice said from somewhere far away, still shaking Kaneki’s body. It sounded like broken sunshine streaming through the rain.

“Hide? Where are you? What’s going on?” His voice broke as he panicked. The landscape around him was crumbling away.

“Hey! Talk to me, man!” Again with the violent shaking and distant voice like muffled sunlight. Kaneki was almost sure it was his friend, but he couldn’t see him… Why couldn’t he see him?

Soon he wouldn’t be able to see anything. The buildings around him were crumbling, but instead of leaving behind piles of rubble they left behind a thick black. Even the sky and the street were dissolving into nothing. Kaneki looked around frantically, trying desperately to find the person the disembodied voice belonged to. The person he trusted. Kaneki was certain that Hide could help him if he could just find him. Kaneki looked into the void around him in all directions, but all that was there was himself and the blood soaked clothes clinging to him. Even the rain was gone, the only dripping noise now was from his blood falling to the invisible would-be ground. 

“Hey… Come on, Kaneki.” The voice- Hide’s voice- was no longer distant. Now it surrounded him, a bright light filling the blackness. “Don’t just leave me by myself, alright? Come on…”

The voice sounded sad. The kind of sad that betrays a smiling face and exposes true feelings as it wavers and breaks. Kaneki clung to it.

“You’re okay, right…?” The voice was much closer now. Kaneki could hear it behind him now. “Come on… Please be okay…”

Kaneki spun around and saw where the voice was coming from, a blonde boy with a sad smile was reaching out to him. He put a hand on Kaneki’s shoulder.

“…Hide?” It couldn’t be Hide. His friend couldn’t be here. Here there was nothing, just black. But the hand on his shoulder… He could feel the black void around the two of them start to break. 

“Kaneki…” Hide said, his voice cracking through his smile. Kaneki could feel the air around him shattering and falling away…

Kaneki gasped and choked, coughing up blood and parts of his insides. Where is he? Why is Hide shaking him? Why did he feel so empty?

“Kaneki! Hey, Kaneki! Kaneki!” Kaneki felt himself being dragged into warm arms. They would have felt nice against his cold wet body if he could feel anything other than pain.

Hunger and pain, that was the empty feeling. He needed to eat. Something, anything. He needed to stop the pain- it felt like claws were ripping out his insides through the gaps in his ribs. He was in agony. He felt starved. Was this dying? Was he already dead?

The grip on him tightened and he felt fresh wetness against his cheek, the body holding his own was lightly shaking. It was warm…

“I was so worried…” Said the voice. Kaneki was sure it wasn’t Hide. Hide didn’t know about him, right? Why would he be here? Why would he see something so good in this horrible place? No, that wouldn’t make sense… He was probably hallucinating. He had to be, but… The body was so warm… It definitely smelled real. Kaneki’s mouth watered. He needed to eat.

“…ngh…” Kaneki groaned as he managed to drag his hands to the body’s shoulders. They felt solid.

He licked the person’s neck, not strong enough to do much else at this point. It tasted salty, familiar.

“Kaneki? what are you- hey…” The body tried to pull away from him a bit, but Kaneki tightened his grip as much as he could. He could feel his nails digging into the meat of the person using his best friend’s voice. How were they doing that? Hide couldn’t be here… He couldn't. He wasn’t… 

He licked the imposter’s neck again, reveling in the taste. Finally, he gathered enough strength to lightly bite into their flesh. He tasted blood as it trickled into his mouth from the small tears he had made with his teeth. Warm and full, it was amazing. He needed more. He needed to eat. 

“ Agh… Kaneki- Stop… Hey!” He thought he heard someone say into his ear. He didn’t have time to figure out who it came from, he didn’t care. He was so hungry. He violently bit into the meat in front of him, feeling near euphoric as the blood and flesh filled his mouth. He thought he felt his food trying to struggle and push him away, but he didn’t care enough to think about it. He was so lost in the feeling of warm muscle sliding down his throat and staving off his hunger. But it wasn’t enough. He was still hungry. He needed more.

The person that was formerly holding Kaneki had let go, clutching at the place where their shoulder used to be as Kaneki moved on. Kaneki frantically grabbed at the body, desperate for anything he could eat. He felt a shirt and ripped it open, beginning to feel stronger. He felt solid lines underneath the cloth and licked at those too, smearing the blood in his mouth from the person’s neck along their abdomen as he did. Even just small taste that gave him was delicious. 

“Kaneki…. Stop! Please, you –ngh!” The voice cried out as Kaneki sunk his teeth into the flesh of their abdomen. It was so satisfying. It was bliss.

Kaneki ripped through the walls of muscle with his teeth and nails until he got to the soft organs underneath. Liver, Kidneys, he didn’t care, he ate everything he could get to. The slippery feeling, the delicious wet noises of intestines squishing through his fingers, He felt so much stronger. 

“Ka- …” He felt a hand weakly touching his cheek as he gorged himself on the squirming body before him, smearing blood across his face as it fell.

Kaneki cracked open the ribs, tearing at the soft lungs and still beating heart. The meat he was eating had stopped squirming and slumped over. Kaneki looked at his hands that were just inside of it, he was left holding a clump of meat and a heart. A heart? But… was he eating a person? No, he… What?

Finally full and beginning to heal rapidly, Kaneki was slowly coming to his senses. He was walking home from school- no… he had just been fighting. He was wounded and escaped… Was it a sewer? It that where he was? But… he was healing so he must have eaten, right? He remembered seeing Hide. Maybe Hide had helped him? But he didn’t remember…

Kaneki noticed the taste of blood in his mouth. Where… Where did that come from? No, he... He didn’t know. He looked at his blood covered hands; they were dripping with the thick liquid and pieces of guts. He remembered hearing a voice. He remembered a voice crying out. Crying out for him to stop… 

Kaneki touched his cheek, remembering a warm, familiar hand being there. No, he couldn’t have… A crushing feeling worse than hunger crept over him. Worse than his wounds. Worse than anything he’d ever felt, but he didn’t know why. He remembered hearing Hide’s voice… it had to have been, but where did he go?

Kaneki looked into the dark tunnel, “Hide!” He called out, wondering if he’d run farther ahead.

“Hi-“ He started, but then he felt something hit his foot as he took a step. It was definitely a person. Their shoulder and neck were ripped open exposing bones. The torso was destroyed, ribs cracked and twisted surrounded by ropes of intestinal remains and crimson water. Vacant wet eyes stared out at nothing from under blond hair dyed dark with blood. Kaneki sank to his knees. Kaneki reached out to the body, gently tapping their intact shoulder.

“hey…” His voice broke with false hope and disbelief.

“…Hide?”


End file.
